Dear Aliya!

If God has many facets, the one that turns into a woman must be the most beautiful one ;)

Dear Syd,

Thought it noble, because it creates, and creativity is noble.

``Thought is noble``.

How?

Dear PI,
Thanks for the reply. However, my curiosity was in relation, specifically, to the last two sentences of your first letter-- the ``I hate you`` bit)
thx,
PM

Dear PM,

As a child when my world did not extent beyond the boundaries of my home, I thought my dad was the all-mighty. He could yell at and punish anyone. Later on when I saw the world in a broader context, I realized my dad is just a helpless grey-haired man who has nothing under his control. So the concept of God that I had all through my childhood just abolished. I was still willing to accept the existence of God, but I was not longer willing to accept the concept of God that I had been given in childhood.
Then as I grew into an adult and fell in love, I started seeing God to be similar to my beloved. This time the concept of God was about love rather than about punishment. About love, as in, a man praying all day trying to please God, but not percepting how God has been replying to it, and feeling he is being ignored.


Dear Studebaker,

That was a low IQ joke, coz Paagal ko siraf Psychiatrists samaj saktay hain! :P


Dear Tipu,

Where do you live? Hello, this is 2003! In the contemporary Pakistani society, no father has the time to tell stories to his son, or guide him about religion, or narrate history to him. Our concepts of Religion and History come from illiterate mothers. Like my own in the above compilatin of letters.

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PI,
hmmm... ok, so your conceptoin of God (or Self?) has changed (evolved?)

As a piece of unanalytical stream-of-conscious stuff, I am loathe to criticize or even opine. I am, however, confused about this part: `` I realized God can not be like my father. God can not be so helpless! If he exists, he probably looks like someone else. I think he looks like you. I hate you!``

Surely, you would not have let this idea go unanalyzed, so would you mind explaining to the slightly dense whether you hate her because she represents the come-down that your new idea of God is (i.e., embodiment of helplessness).

(I suspect I might have the whole question backward)

rgds,
PM

PI,
hmmm... ok, so your conceptoin of God (or Self?) has changed (evolved?)

As a piece of unanalytical stream-of-conscious stuff, I am loathe to criticize or even opine. I am, however, confused about this part: `` I realized God can not be like my father. God can not be so helpless! If he exists, he probably looks like someone else. I think he looks like you. I hate you!``

Surely, you would not have let this idea go unanalyzed, so would you mind explaining to the slightly dense whether you hate her because she represents the come-down that your new idea of God is (i.e., embodiment of helplessness).

(I suspect I might have the whole question backward)

rgds,
PM

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(¯`·._.·[ Comment of the Millenium ]·._.·´¯)



``This is the most interesting thing that I`ve read in a while.``
- #47 by maria526

This is the most interesting thing that I`ve read in a while.

Alia is a bitch and PI is an incomplete word.. PItiful.

``Dear Rozaiba,
The `bakvaas` about spirit, soul, heart and the metaphor of love is only another way of saying ``search and struggle are themselves manifestations of love.``
``

pagalinsaan:
yes. you are right. the slicing of the single ONE entity of the self into heart, soul, spirit etc. is a consequence of that struggle. some old iberian sufi once said something like many things appear separate but are in real one.

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Dear Saminasha,
Whatever!



Dear Godot,
lol sharam kerain! Doosron ko bhains naee khetay! :P

superimposing thoughts rozaiba bibi....totally unfair...and u seem to be proud of ur modesty ..r pagal insaan

Mr. Pagal Insaan,

The humor of someone with your nick identifying me as someone who understands your work does not escape me.

Cheers!

Re: Paagal, #39

``Aqal Barri Ke Bhains?``

hehehe...sometimes it`s bhains, I reckon!

nazarhayatkhan #34 While it is not clear from your post whether your wife controls you or you control your wife, but clearly this aspect of marriage seems important to you. Have you considered letting go of this ``control freak`` way of thinking, since marriage is not a military institution with a chain of command? I suggest you take your wife out for a good time someplace, and then make wild and crazy love to her in the hotel room, and come back and debrief us all on chowk.

Dear Saminasha,


``no one can have ever the access to the shade under which a thing is created...``
- #31 by koi-kon

``.... I think Saminasha is directly under that shade...``
- #36 by PaagalInsaan




Translating to English:

- A lot of people mis-percepted this article and koi-kon thought this proves that a reader can not completely understand the idea of the writer behind a piece of literature. I disagreed to him, and as an example, pointed out to him that Saminasha`s perception is very close to perfection.


Moral of the Story: Aqal Barri Ke Bhains?

Mr. Pagal Insaan,

``...I think its about being on a particular wavelength.... I think Saminasha is directly under that shade...``

ji?

Dear freethinker,
I have not sought permission from Aliya for the `rights of publication` of her letters yet :) Obviously after a while she thought I was a retard and left me.


Dear koi-kon,
I think its about being on a particular wavelength.... I think Saminasha is directly under that shade. It is however the mediocrity of my ability to express my feelings that confuses the reader.


Dear Bhitai,
The Sufi (and Koranic) metaphor of comparing a believer with Maryam, is just a symbolic narration of the rise of a human soul to the state of Salvation (Nafs-e-Mutmainna). This procreation is only as confusingly superior to physical procreation, as is the love of God to the love of Aliya! :)


Dear Rozaiba,
The `bakvaas` about spirit, soul, heart and the metaphor of love is only another way of saying ``search and struggle are themselves manifestations of love.``

Mr Khan Sahib,

Your marriage, like any thing else, is what you make it...it is my observation that older men become kaum chors :) when it comes to matters that could transcend the catatonic state you describe....

...and looking at younger women is not the answer either.

Reply Tehmed # 32

I am in complete control of my wife. These are `stolen` posts. You will suffer the same fate.

The Brides enter home eyes down very vulnerable. Then piece by piece, they keep growing in stature and take over your life.

First, the keys & control over servants.
Then, the management of your home.
Then, control of behaviour of your relatives in your own home.
Then, control over your cigerrets & drinks.
Then, control over the choice of your friends.

By then, the children are born. She has lost that classical sensuous feminity. But the confidence is supreme. She treats you like another child at home.

Kama Sutra. Both of you are quite unfit for such advanced exercises. Sex has become too familiar and too easy. No chance of mental creativity.

Just look back at the cycle of your parents and others. The same cycle keeps going on for generations.

Creativity comes when someone has the courage to fly out of this cycle.
Marriage is a society`s requirement. Not the nature`s requirement.

PagalInsaan:

your letters reveal search and struggle. those are themselves manifestations of love.

but what is that bakvaas about `spirit, soul, heart` on metaphor of love etc?

``It is said tyrannical passions reside in the heart. but could it be that they nestle in the mind? THAT is the secret of insanity!``

#27
PI
this is profound stuff man, even if you don`t admit it...

a question..why do we have to restrict procreation to the physical level only? I`m sure you know that a soul itself is capable of giving birth to a new being and thus represents the essential feminine in all of us (another sufi theme, remember how Rumi compares mystics with Maryam?). To me, the notion of spiritual procreation sounds superior to the physical one - what do you say?

well..pagal insaan..(or behlool dana)..
here comes with ur confession the prove that no one can have ever the access to the shade under which a thing is created...i opine that it is a straight-from-heart letter since this sort of love is quite in vogue.....

Re: Jay, #26

Jay, you first need to elaborate on as to what you mean by ``creativity``. We can then start from that premise.

Dear Mr. Nietschze:

I am intrigued by your two candid letters. I am curious to konw if Aliya responded to your letters. I would also like to know what she said in response I hope you might like to share it with the Chowk readers.

Wishing you well and letting you know that you`re not alone who were intimately concerned to know about God. God is the most baffling and confusing concept created by human mind.

Finally an author that can live up to his/her name.


Ras

Godot,

Let me elaborate, the innate urge of human beings is to reach immortality, ordinaru humana achieve it through their progeny, their values and genes survive their own physical death.

Spiritualists by focussing on the god what ever be the name again try to achieve immortality by being with the brahman, to resurrect or to be in heaven with the houris.

Artists and scientists come in between. In their persuit of immortality, they tend not to have, or at best neglect their progeny primarily because the they are focussed on achieving immortality through other means.

At various income levels, this supreme motivating factor decomposes into the four elements of maslovs motivation factors.

°o.O My Own Analysis O.o°

The two letters in the compilation were written in totally different contexts. My intention here was not to establish an analogy between God and the Beloved, but to unify the different manifestations of the feeling of `Love` and to highlight the intriguing confusion of the `subconcious logic` in its decision on how to react to the inborn feeling of love, in the contemporary third world society.

`` is it the uncertainity or the fear-of-commitment ``
- #13 by koi-kon





°o.O Profound ? O.o°

As an artist, compliance with sanity has never been a major concern for me. There are times in my life when I listen to and express the pure subconcious. These are two letters that I wrote to my beloved, without the slightest intention of getting them published. Being at that level of intimacy, your major concern is to express, and not the psychological analysis of your feelings. Philosophy and religion are not your concerns either. I did not `attempt to sound profound` (Re: Bhitai) because I have no philosophy to follow.




°o.O The Metaphor of Love O.o°

God created Souls seven thousand years before the Bodies, and kept them in a station of Proximity. He created the Spirits seven thousand years before the Souls, and kept them in the degree of Intimacy. He created the Hearts seven thousand years before the Spirits, and kept them in the degree of Union. He revealed the epiphany of his beauty to the Heart, three hundred and sixty times every day, and bestowed on it, three hundred and sixty looks of grace. He caused the Spirits to hear three hundred and sixty words of love and manifested three hundred and sixty exquisite favours of intimacy to the Soul. They all surveyed the phenomenol universe and saw nothing more precious than themselves. This made them full of vanity and pride. Therefore God subjected them to probation: He imprisoned the Heart in the Spirit, and the Spirit in the Soul, and the Soul in the Body; then He mingled Logic with them.

Each of them began to seek its original degree or station. (Re Saima Shah) The Body seeks physical pleasures such as eating and intercourse, and eventually betakes itself into prayers. The Soul seeks love of objects and eventually attains to the love of God. The Spirit eventually arrives at proximity to God, and the Heart finally finds rest in Union with Him. This is Salvation.




°o.O The Essence of Letter One O.o°

`` Paternal threats cause the child to leave the safe haven of the maternal body. Why leave this safe haven if all you have to look forward to is fear and threats? ``
- #21 by Saminasha




°o.O The Essence of Letter Two O.o°

- Reproduction is not creativity in the proverbial sense. It infact is `imitativity`, which is the exact opposite of proverbial `creativity`. Literal creativity is different. The word `Create` is akin to the Latin `crescere` which means, `to grow`.

- The Koran starts with the praise of God for the reason of him being the `Rab` of the worlds. The word `Rab` implies creation and nourishment. The ability of a woman to give birth and nourish is the human manifestation of God`s ability to create and nourish. This ability renders women superior to men.


``God sometimes you just don`t come through
Do you need a woman to look after you ``
- #5 by Saminasha

scout #20 Jay misspelt the term for the male anatomy due to excitement at the thought of exposing his prurient thoughts on chowk. Even hindutvas get excited sometimes. Admittedly perhaps once or twice in their lifetime, and (in some cases like jay) with the aid of viagra. But they do get excited and then they start misspelling sex-related words like jay just did.

nazarhayatkhan #19 I trust Begum Hayat Khan is aware of your view that ``it is the stolen love & sex, and not the routine humdrum, that sharpens all those senses of creativity.`` As the resident sex specialist, my advice to you is that you should work harder at improving your routine humdrum. Try out kama sutra at home, for example (if you can convince begum sahiba, that is, and not get drowned in a heap of invective from the scandled lady).

hamidm #16 That was ``not so subtle innuendo``?? I couldnt figure out whether you were recommending some kind of sex or recommending a recipe for making achaar.

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why did jay spell his anatomy wrong in post #17?
that is the more important question here.

let`s evaluate and discuss that.

``....The Maternal Body

Following Melanie Klein and in contrast to Freud and Lacan, Kristeva emphasizes the maternal function and its importance in the development of subjectivity and access to culture and language. While Freud and Lacan maintain that the child enters the social by virtue of the paternal function, specifically paternal threats of castration, Kristeva asks why, if our only motivation for entering the social is fear, more of us aren`t psychotic? In Tales of Love, she questions the Freudian-Lacanian notion that paternal threats cause the child to leave the safe haven of the maternal body. Why leave this safe haven if all you have to look forward to is fear and threats? Kristeva is interested in the earliest development of subjectivity, prior to Freud`s oedipal situation or Lacan mirror stage.

Kristeva argues that maternal regulation is the law before the Law, before Paternal Law (see Tales of Love). She calls for a new discourse of maternity that acknowledges the importance of the maternal function in the development of subjectivity and in culture. In ``Stabat Mater`` in Tales of Love and ``Motherhood According to Bellini`` in Desire in Language, Kristeva argues that we don`t have adequate discourses of maternity. Religion, specifically Catholicism (which makes the mother sacred), and science (which reduces the mother to nature) are the only discourses of maternity available to Western culture.

In ``Motherhood According to Bellini`` and elsewhere, she suggests that the maternal function cannot be reduced to mother, feminine, or woman. By identifying the mother`s relation to the infant as a function, Kristeva separates the function of meeting the child`s needs from both love and desire. As a woman and as a mother, a woman both loves and desires and as such she is primarily a social and speaking being. As a woman and a mother, she is always sexed. But, insofar as she fulfills the maternal function, she is not sexed. Kristeva`s analysis suggests that to some extent anyone can fulfill the maternal function, men or women.

By insisting that the maternal body operates between nature and culture, Kristeva tries to counter-act stereotypes that reduce maternity to nature. Even if the mother is not the subject or agent of her pregnancy and birth, she never ceases to be primarily a speaking subject. In fact, Kristeva uses the maternal body with its two-in-one, or other within, as a model for all subjective relations. Like the maternal body, each one of us is what she calls a subject-in-process. As subjects-in-process we are always negotiating the other within, that is to say, the return of the repressed. Like the maternal body, we are never completely the subjects of our own experience. Some feminists have found Kristeva`s notion of a subject-in-process a useful alternative to traditional notions of an autonomous unified (masculine) subject.

Abjection and Sexism

In Powers of Horror, working with Mary Douglas`s Purity and Danger (Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger, New York: Routledge, 1969.), Kristeva develops a notion of abjection that has been very useful in diagnosing the dynamics of oppression. She describes abjection as an operation of the psyche through which subjective and group identity are constituted by excluding anything that threats one`s own (or one`s group`s) borders. The main threat to the fledgling subject is his or her dependence upon the maternal body. Therefore, abjection is fundamentally related to the maternal function. As Kristeva claims in Black Sun, matricide is our vital necessity because in order to become subjects (within a patriarchal culture) we must abject the maternal body. But, because women cannot abject the maternal body with which they also identify as women, they develop what Kristeva calls a depressive sexuality (see Black Sun). Kristeva`s analysis in Black Sun suggests that we need not only a new discourse of maternity but also a discourse of the relation between mothers and daughters, a discourse that does not prohibit the lesbian love between women through which female subjectivity is born.

In Tales of Love, Kristeva suggests that misplaced abjection is one cause of women`s oppression (see p. 374). In patriarchal cultures, women have been reduced to the maternal function; that is to say, they have been reduced to reproduction. So, if it is necessary to abject the maternal function to become a subject, and women, maternity, and femininity all have been reduced to the maternal function, then within patriarchy, women, maternity, and femininity are all abjected along with the maternal function. This misplaced abjection is one way to account for women`s oppression and degradation within patriarchal cultures.

Feminism

Although many feminist theorists and literary critics have found Kristeva`s ideas useful and provocative, Kristeva`s relation to feminism has been ambivalent. Her views of feminism are best represented in her essay ``Women`s Time`` in New Maladies of the Soul. In this essay originally published in 1979, Kristeva argues that there are three phases of feminism. She rejects the first phase because it seeks universal equality and overlooks sexual differences. She implicitly criticizes Simone de Beauvoir and the rejection of motherhood; rather than reject motherhood Kristeva insists that we need a new discourse of maternity. In fact, in ``A New Type of Intellectual: The Dissident,`` Kristeva suggests that ``real female innovation (in whatever field) will only come about when maternity, female creation and the link between them are better understood`` (298).

Kristeva also rejects what she sees as the second phase of feminism because it seeks a uniquely feminine language, which she thinks is impossible. Kristeva does not agree with feminists who maintain that language and culture are essentially patriarchal and must somehow be abandoned. On the contrary, Kristeva insists that culture and language are the domain of speaking beings and women are primarily speaking beings. Kristeva endorses what she identifies as the third phase of feminism which seeks to reconceive of identity and difference and their relationship. This current phase of feminism refuses to choose identity over difference or visa versa; rather, it explores multiple identities, including multiple sexual identities. In an interview with Rosalind Coward, Kristeva proposes that there are as many sexualities as their are individuals...``

Paigam 9,

A correction, shiva lingam is not pennis alone, it is pennis stuck in the vagina, symbol of creation of the archiac kind.

According to sufi traditions, the soul is a female, so I guess one doesn`t have to go that far looking for a goddess. In addition, there exists in tradition another strange analogy - where God`s visage becomes the mysterious face of Mehboob that is perpetually veiled by the tresses (zulf) of Divine Attributes, hence all the ishqiya poetry.

I feel that the author needs a dose of Rumi - I only wish he had read the mevlvi before attempting to sound profound!

#15 Jay

Love & sex do not neceassily mean ``family & children``.

In fact, it is the stolen love & sex, and not the routine humdrum, that sharpens all those senses of creativity.

jay,

......... finally, we have figured out your problem : ``The finest example is spirituality whic explicitly bannes reproductive version of creativity`` !!!!

......... where did you learn that? .... at some madrassah in chennai run by saffron clad mullahs who terrorise little boys by telling them that they will go blind if they don`t cease and desist (instead of seize and twist)? ..........let me assure you, it is not true!.........nothing happens, nobody goes blind!........ it is all lies!........ you can have a normal life with conjugal (and adulterous) experiences and still be pretty dang creative ........... these experiences are the closest thing to having an out of body spiritual trip without the help of chemical substances .........

..........the only thing that beats this experience is a single malt, followed by a thick juicy steak oozing red cow blood ......... you know, you are supposed to eat those things - not worship them? ......... go ahead, fornicate your brains out - it will not harm your creativity ........actually, it might make your creative (and other) juices flow and, who knows, you might be able to add to the body of divine knowledge contained in the kama sutra ...........

P.S. i apologize to the ladies and tahmed for the crass and not so subtle innuendo ........ sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do .............

Re: Jay, #14

Jay, in trying to be philosophical you are completely confusing the issue of sex and creativity. What makes you think the monks and hermits are “creative”? The fact is, in pursuit of their extremely selfish desire, they shun the world and all kind of creativity. On the other hand, most great scientists, artists and writers had/have sex, reproduce, and have families. They have benefited the humanity tremendously with their creativity. What makes you think they are not “creative”? FYI, it is a fact that most creative people have very strong sex drive. And besides, what will happen to all those souls who must suffer if there is no reproduction?

nazarhaya 12,

For the mediocre and the average, reproduction is creativity, they contribute to the stability of mankind. The really creative people tend not to have ``family and children`` so that their energies are directed towards ``creativity``. The finest example is spirituality whic explicitly bannes reproductive version of creativity.

y so much fluctuations in all the relatin v weave.. is it the uncertainity or the fear-of-commitment....i sense a bit saddistic taste...anyone seconds me...?

had the author got laid by Aliya, he would have been still a believer.

Aliya, tu ney yeah kia kia?

On the issues of time, space and beliefs, I still remain confused.

But there is certainly a strong link between creativity, love & sex. The most creative thoughts come out of this deadly combination.

And the only moments one is really dissassociated with this physical world are those few moment just prior to peeking out and mixing of chemicals.

this is a very interesting little peek at the search for love. From God to goddess...in romantic poetry and especially in Urdu poetry the other has been God or a human lover. I guess the power dynamics might be similar.

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I think that you have selected your name very wisely!

PI:

…nice epistolary take on Mother Nature…’abdul’ Harris is a novel touch…smooth switch…on one level it works for me….on another it is a little trite…obvious you pay attention…you are a welcome addtion to chowk…please keep sharing

rgds,

t

ps: must confess a reluctance to use your first name…or even the full pseudonym…just cannot…it must be my programming;)

PAGLA KAHIN KA, TUBA TUBA

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SSSsssssssssnnnnsnnnnzzzzzzzzzz.zz.z.z.z.zz.......

God sometimes you just don`t come through
God sometimes you just don`t come through
Do you need a woman to look after you
God sometimes you just don`t come through

You make pretty daisies pretty daisies love
I gotta find what you`re doing about things here
a few witches burning gets a little toasty here
I gotta find why you always go when the wind blows
tell me you`re crazy maybe then I`ll understand
you got your 9 iron in the back seat just in case
heard you`ve gone south well babe you love your new 4 wheel
I gotta find why you always go when the wind blows

[give not thy strength unto women
nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings]

Will you even tell her if you decide to make the sky fall
will you even tell her if you decide to make the sky

God sometimes you just don`t come through
God sometimes you just don`t come through
Do you need a woman to look after you
God sometimes you just don`t come through

Sistas,

March 8 is International Woman`s Day.

Saddam will have a heart attack, and you will be saved.

Let me get this straight. Are you saying that your dad`s name is Aliya and she has a moustache?